Poetry

While in the car at 4am yesterday morning--we were headed to watch the sunrise--my family got to chatting about Haiku. We even wrote one. Check out our early morning creation:

Good morning.It is dark outside.We're driving.

Bad HaikuHolzmanns 11/23/08

Since one of my nephews was in the car, I thought it was a good "teaching moment"--or, at least, an opportunity to show off <smile>--and so I explained how in English our poetry revolves around rhyme/meter, how Haiku revolves around specific syllable use, and how Hebrew poetry involves repetition of letters at the beginning of each line. For instance, English poetry repeats sounds:

The sun is shining in the morn,

A

As if the world was new, just born.

A

We see the sky, all blue and clear.

B

The waves are close; they feel so near.

B

But in Hebrew, the "AA.. BB..." scheme is literal:

A

Again I see the silky sun

A

As it shines down on me.

B

Beneath the waves

B

Blue fish swim.

My dad, who had been listening, suddenly remarked, "After all these years of studying English, I just learned something: Poetry is writing using specific constraints to make it artistic."

That was a much better explanation than what I got in Junior Year's Honors English: Poetry is whatever is not prose.

My dad went on to comment that using such a definition would make even the chiastic structure a form of poetry. And that makes sense, even if no one has officially labeled it so. And so, I'll label it officially: